Yahoo has been in talks with Facebook over a possible search deal that could see an end to its partnership with Microsoft’s Bing, according to a news report.
Speaking to The Sunday Telegraph, unnamed sources said that Marissa Mayer, chief executive of Yahoo!, has held discussions with Sheryl Sandberg,Facebook’s chief operating officer, about how the two companies can work more closely together.
The current Bing and Yahoo deal, created back in 2009, sees Microsoft power the core search experience for the venerable Internet company, which sells ads against the traffic that it maintains, despite having effectively left the search market years past.
As Mark Zuckerberg has made clear, he wants to one day push his company past the limitations of their own social networking site and into a much broader field, like building “a better map of how you navigate the Web than the traditional link structure of the Web.”
On the flip side, Yahoo under Mayer wants to revive her company’s “products and engineering focus.”
A search engine for mobiles?
The advantage to Facebook working in search is that it has access to a pool of data that is unmatched in its variety and quality.
Yahoo has stated that it will become a company that is consumed with mobile work.
Facebook too has invested heavily to remake its mobile applications, touting a new strategy that veers from its prior love affair with HTML5.
Give the firm emphasis from both companies on mobile, it’s simple to assume that any potential search product or partnership would have a heavy focus on smartphones.
Read the Sunday Telegraph report here